Richard G. Rosner

For other people named Richard Rosner, see Richard Rosner (disambiguation).
Rick Rosner
Born Richard G. Rosner
May 2, 1960 (1960-05-02) (age 51)
Occupation Writer, media figure
Years active 1987–present

Richard G. "Rick" Rosner (born May 2, 1960) is an American television writer and media figure known for his high intelligence test scores and his unusual career. He is reported to have achieved some of the highest scores ever recorded on IQ tests designed to measure exceptional intelligence.[1][2] He has become known for applying his high IQ to activities not usually associated with geniuses. Rosner claims to have used fake IDs to re-enroll in high school repeatedly, and he has worked as a stripper, roller-skating waiter, bouncer, and nude model.[3][4][5][6][7][8] He has appeared in numerous documentaries and profiles about his activities and views. He has also appeared in a Domino's Pizza commercial and sued the quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire over an allegedly flawed question he missed as a contestant in 2000.[9][10] He writes and produces for quiz shows and for several programs produced by Jimmy Kimmel, including The Man Show, Crank Yankers, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! [11]

Contents

Early life, education, intelligence tests

Rosner grew up in Boulder, Colorado.[12] After graduating high school and attending University of Colorado, Boulder on and off for several years, he repeated several years of high school voluntarily in Albuquerque, New Mexico and elsewhere using forged documents.[13][14][15] As an aspiring media figure, he placed a number of ads with titles about physics in the entertainment trade journal Variety while attending college.[16][17] Rosner moved to New York and wrote for MTV. When his wife got a job offer in California, they moved west.[12]

According to unverified scores on tests designed to measure high intelligence, Rosner claims to have one of the world’s highest IQs. In 1985, he claims to have scored 44 out of 48 on Ron Hoeflin’s Mega Test, the second-highest score among the nearly 4,000 people who took the test. In 1990, Rosner claims to have received a perfect score on Hoeflin’s equally difficult Titan Test [18] and, in 1991, scored 47 in a second attempt at the Mega Test. His combined scores indicate an adult (deviation) IQ in the mid- to high-190s [19][20][21][22] From 1991 to 1997, Rosner was editor of Noesis, the journal of the Mega Society, an organization open to people who have scored at the one-in-a-million level on tests of general intelligence. More recently, Rosner claims to have scored a 200 on the IQ test.

Media activity and appearances

Rosner began writing for quiz shows in 1987 on the MTV series Remote Control. He then scripted a number of clip shows, countdowns, and outtake programs in the 1990s. Rosner's 2000 appearance on the quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire led to a lawsuit over an allegedly flawed question he missed on the elevation of various country capitals.[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] His letter-writing campaign and attempts to get brought back on the show led to his being profiled in the Errol Morris series First Person. Jimmy Kimmel later hired him as a writer, producer and occasional on-air talent.[11][31][32] In 2008, he appeared in a Domino's Pizza ad for a line of oven-baked sandwiches.[33] On April 9, 2009, Rosner appeared on Bill Simmons' ESPN podcast "The BS Report." In May 2009 Rosner was featured on an episode of A&E Television's Obsessed. The episode focused on his obsession with working out and fear of aging/dying.[34]

References

  1. ^ Morris, Errol, “One in a Million Trillion,” First Person (2000)
  2. ^ Prager, Joshua Harris 'Let's See Now, Complain Is to Club As Order Takeout Is to Restaurant,' The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, May 14, 1997
  3. ^ Morris, Scot. "Games". Omni magazine January 1986. 
  4. ^ Anderson, Jack; Van Atta, Dale (1988-11-28). "Is the new Chief of Staff too smart?". The Deseret News. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2m8oAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EIQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6330,5796759. : "Tied with Sununu were… Solomon Golomb… and Rick Rosner, a University of Colorado physics student who made his living as a roller skating waiter and a stripper. Rosner's method of undressing was to set his clothes on fire."
  5. ^ Chotzinoff, Robin (November 20–26, 1985). "Is This the Smartest Man in America?". Westword.  Includes photos of Rosner stripping with paper suit on fire.
  6. ^ Rosner, Rick. When Good IQs Happen to Bad People. Noesis 57, January 1991. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  7. ^ Moore, Michael, Markoe, Merrill (1994). "Talk Show". TV Nation, episode 6, NBC TV. 
  8. ^ Rivera, Geraldo. “People with an X-Rated Past”, Geraldo, December, 1989.
  9. ^ Bronstad, Amanda (June 7, 2004). "Fine Print Stymies game show writer’s try in front of camera". Los Angeles Business Journal. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_23_26/ai_n6076559. Retrieved 2007-12-23. 
  10. ^ Jennings, Ken. Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs, New York: Villard, pp. 110–111. ISBN 1-400006445-7
  11. ^ a b Gay, Jason (December 15, 2002). Kimmel Hires Jilted Contestant. New York Observer
  12. ^ a b Krier, Beth Ann (July 28, 1992). "As Whiz Kids Grow Up; Do Exceptional Children Become Exceptional Adults? Not Always. Sometimes There Are A Few Bumps Along The Way". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1992-07-28/news/vw-4603_1_exceptional-children. 
  13. ^ Gibson, Daryl. "'Genius' launches trial flight of scientific theory," Boulder Daily Camera, April 5, 1986.
  14. ^ Smith, L.L. "Letter to the Editor," Colorado Daily, April 10, 1986.
  15. ^ Jones, Tao. "Worse than you suspected: Boy wonder takes to skies with theory of the Bland Universe", Colorado Daily, April 4, 1986.
  16. ^ Rosner, Rick. Advertisements, Daily Variety: "Gravitation is relativistically attenuated", January 22, 1986, p. 10; "Mach's Principle applies to gravitation", January 26, 1986, p. 30; "In a universe containing only two objects, the objects wouldn't be gravitationally attracted to each other", February 2, 2007.
  17. ^ Zaslow, Jeffrey (May 29, 1990). Aspiring actors place hopes in classified ads. Chicago Sun-Times
  18. ^ Miyaguchi, Darryl. "Uncommonly Difficult IQ Tests: Introduction to the Hoeflin Tests: The Titan Test". http://www.eskimo.com/~miyaguch/. Retrieved 2007-12-23. . From the article: “The Titan Test is a more difficult twin to the Mega Test.”
  19. ^ Hoeflin, Ronald K (1998). "The Statistical Technique for Combining IQ Scores". http://www.megasociety.org/noesis/141/ferguson.html. Retrieved 2007-12-23. 
  20. ^ Towers, Grady “Five Letters from Grady Towers”, 1998. http://megasociety.net/noesis/141/towers.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  21. ^ Towers, Grady. “Some Observations on the Titan Test”, 1999. Towers notes that small sample sizes, ceiling-bumping effects, and the lack of high-level conventional tests make it difficult to establish exact norms for the top end of the Titan Test. Towers includes a table equating a perfect Titan score with a Mega score of 46 (corresponding to an IQ of 198). Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  22. ^ Vaughn, Fred et al. '1998/99 Membership Committee Report', The Prometheus Society Membership Committee (1999). A committee of ten people including four psychologists found that the Langdon Adult Intelligence Test, the Mega Test, and the Titan Test are able to discriminate at the 4.75 sigma (one in a million) level. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  23. ^ The Daily Show's Moment of Zen for July 12, 2001: Rosner loses on Millionaire
  24. ^ Byrd, Veronica (July 30, 2001). "Passages: Legal Matters". People magazine. pp. 67. 
  25. ^ Fonseca, Nicholas (July 27, 2001). "Monitor: Courts". Entertainment Weekly. pp. 14. 
  26. ^ Costas, Bob (December 4, 2001). "Richard Rosner, former contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and his attorney, Rene Tovar, discuss the reasons they are filing a lawsuit, claiming that a question was unfair". The Today Show, NBC News. . Transcript available at Lexis-Nexis (subscription required).
  27. ^ Chotzinoff, Robin (November 2, 2000). "Surrender, Regis". Westword. http://www.westword.com/2000-11-02/news/surrender-regis/. Retrieved 2007-12-23. 
  28. ^ Li, David K. (December 22, 2001). "Hey Judge, Thanks a Million". New York Post. . "ABC Says Wrong Is Right on Quiz Show". New York Post. November 28, 2001. 
  29. ^ Rosner, Rick. “Ex-Contestant Wants to Question the Answers”, Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2001.
  30. ^ Stouffer, Linda; Vercammen, Paul. “Who Wants to Sue a Millionaire?” CNN Live at Daybreak, CNN, July 12, 2001. Transcript available at Lexis-Nexis (subscription required).
  31. ^ Crank Yankers. "Helen Higgins has her Film Developed," Crank Yankers, episode 2.17, October 28, 2003. In this episode, photos are shown of a puppet's head on Rosner's body.
  32. ^ Jimmy Kimmel Live! "Rick Week", 2003; "Will Rick Eat It?", episode 255, March 10, 2004 (In episode 264, March 23, 2004, Rosner ate a dirty hot dog.); "So You Think You Can Dance Naked on top of a Fifth Grader, Asshole?" (Fox promo parody), episode 917, September 6, 2007.
  33. ^ Bialyk, Carl (March 11, 2009). In Ads, 1 Out of 5 Stats Is Bogus* Wall Street Journal
  34. ^ Alan Prendergast (9 June 2009). "Rick Rosner's latest gig: obsessed, in treatment". Denver Westword. http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/06/rick_rosners_latest_gig_obsess.php. Retrieved 2009-06-15. 

Further reading

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